Two questions from a wannabe cook

[Linda0818]

When I was in high school, we had a little kitchen disaster. My mom always turned the stove on high to get it warmed up more quickly. One day, when I was in the basement doing something, she called to me saying that she had just put something on the stove and to come up in 5 minutes and turn it down. She needed to run to the store. Of course, I totally forgot. At some point, I heard a loud bang. I went upstairs to find the kitchen filled with what looked like fog. Through the fog, I could see the burner on the stove glowing red. When I took a breath, I almost choked. I opened the side door, took a deep breath, and went over the turned the stove off. I then went back in several times opening doors and windows to let the toxic fog out.

When it finally cleared, I saw that the bottom of the large heavy pot that she used for pot roasts had melted. The "fog" was actually a toxic metallic haze. The kitchen and the adjoining living room had to have all new paint and wallpaper and I think some of the furniture had to be replaced.

Oh no! Now there's a disaster for you. Glad no one was hurt.

 

[jennyema]

Different types of bacteria throw off different types of spores. Botulism spores need an oxygen-free environment.

But Bacillus spores thrive in oxygen. They can give you a debilitating form of food poisoning. Often associated with misheld rice.

 

[BAPyessir6]

Bahaha my mom always cooks her potatoes in the microwave for like hash browns or fried potatoes (she skins them and fries them; they're quite good) and she said when my older sisters (twins) were young and she was a newer cook, she threw the potatoes in the microwave and forgot to poke them because, well, my mom had 5 year old twins at the time. She then heard a loud BOOM like 10 minutes later. She thought someone was shooting the house. Alas it took a good 10 minutes to clean the kitchen because the potato exploding not only opened the microwave door (and got potato all over the kitchen), but actually broke the door clean off the microwave. And now she double checks that she pokes all her potatoes.

 

[dragnlaw]

Not only scary but funny too!